On April 18, 1644, occurred the second great Indian massacre in
Virginia's history. Opechancanough, King of the Pamunkey Indian
confederation, planned and executed the massacre, which most historians
attribute to the steadily increasing pressure exerted by the English on
the Indians' lands. The white population had increased from 3,000 in
1630 to 8,000 in 1640, and more were pouring in yearly. Nearly four
hundred English, living in exposed areas of the colony, reportedly lost
their lives in the massacre. The gallant young Berkeley, as proficient a
soldier as he was a playwright and courtier, struck back hard at the
Indians. The entire colony was put on a war footing. Campaigns, usually
by small mobile forces, were conducted against the Indians where they
could be found. The June Assembly passed an act for "perpetuall warre
with the Indians" promising to "pursue and root out those which have any
way had theire hands in the shedding of our blood and massacring of our
people."
As in the case of so many Indian wars, there was a difference of opinion
as to which Indian nations were guilty of the attack. The Assembly's act
attempted to restrict reprisals to those who had actually perpetrated
the massacre. Some individuals, however, like Col. William Claiborne,
seem to have desired to extend the reprisals to the Indians living
between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, where the land interests of
Claiborne and others were concentrated at this time.
Little progress was made in defeating the enemy in the early months of
the war. The Assembly, meeting in June 1644, foreseeing ruin and
desolation unless the colony could be furnished with a greater supply of
arms and ammunition, entreated Governor Berkeley to return to England
and implore His Majesty for assistance to the country. The Assembly also
commissioned Mr. Cornelius Lloyd as agent for the colony to obtain what
supplies he could from the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, from the
Swedish plantation on the Delaware, and from the New England
settlements.
It does not seem, from the records available, that either mission was
successful. Governor Berkeley found England involved in full-scale war
between the forces of the King and those of Parliament. Instead of
receiving aid from the King, Berkeley lent his own assistance to the
King's cause in his English campaigns. Berkeley returned to Virginia a
year later.
The mission of Virginia's agent to the northern colonies apparently met
with similar lack of success. Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts
Bay attributed the massacre to Virginia's expulsion of certain "godly
ministers" sent from New England a short time before, and told the
Virginia agent that Massachusetts could not spare the powder requested.
When Massachusetts' principal powder store shortly thereafter blew up,
Winthrop wondered whether God's wrath might not have been kindled
against the Bay Colony for her refusal to provide powder to fellow
Englishmen in need.
The war with Opechancanough continued throughout the fall and winter of
1644 and into the spring of 1645. At the Assembly of February 1645
provision was made for sending out the usual military parties. But in
addition three forts were ordered built: one in the Pamunkey territory,
one at the falls of the James, and a third along the Chickahominy.
Efforts were made to see that the expenses of the war were equitably
shared. The settlers at Northumberland, on the south bank of the
Potomac, were ordered to contribute to the cost of the war on the north
side of the James. Chickacoan, as the area was known at first, had
served for several years as a rallying point for Protestants disaffected
with the government of Lord Baltimore, but this was the first official
notice of the settlement by the Virginia Assembly. Settlement along the
Potomac was significant, of course, because it placed a body of citizens
farther from effective control than any had been in the past. It had
been hard enough for Harvey to control the citizens on the south side of
the York River; now two broad rivers, the York and Rappahannock, lay
between the frontier settlements and Jamestown.
The Assembly of February 1645 found time to deal with matters other than
the conduct of the war. It passed an act providing "That Free trade be
allowed to all the inhabitants of the collony to buy and sell at their
best advantage." Because some questions had been asked by the merchants
of London concerning a rumored prohibition of trade with them, it was
thought fit to explain that Virginia's free trade extended to them as to
other Englishmen.
Following Sir William Berkeley's return from England June 7, 1645,
vigorous measures were taken to end the protracted war with
Opechancanough, and a new Assembly was called to reform abuses which had
sprung up. This Assembly met in November and passed reform laws which
demonstrate the concern Berkeley had for satisfying all the legitimate
grievances of the people. Action was taken against innkeepers who
charged unreasonable rates and fraudulently mixed their wines and
liquors with water. Similar action was taken against millers who
overcharged the people. Attorneys at law who charged fees for their
services were expelled from office, the colony having become outraged
at their exactions. The prohibition against professional attorneys
continued for a number of years before it was finally relaxed. Strict
regulations were instituted to curb the abuses of administrators of
deceased persons and orphans. Because of the trouble and charge to
plaintiffs and defendants of coming to Jamestown to attend the General
Court, county courts were allowed power to try all causes at common law
and equity. The tradition that appeals should lie from county courts to
the General Court and from the General Court to the Assembly was
reaffirmed. General poll taxes, which had been reintroduced, were
abolished on the grounds that they were "inconvenient" and had "become
insupportable for the poorer sorte to beare." All levies were ordered to
be raised "by equall proportions out of the visible estates in the
collony." Exemptions from taxation extended to members of the Council
were canceled for the duration of the war. It is not hard to imagine the
praise that would have been heaped on the initiator of such reforms, had
it seemed that they were the result of a democratic uprising.
In March 1646 the Assembly met again. The policy of building forts had
evidently been considered successful enough to encourage the Assembly to
order another, Fort Henry, constructed at the falls of the Appomattox
for the defense of the inhabitants on the south side of the James River
and to deprive the Indians of their fishing in the area. The war had
been going on for a year and a half and the enemy forces were still not
destroyed. The Assembly, considering the vast expense that the conflict
had caused and considering "the almost impossibility of a further
revenge upon them, they being dispersed and driven from their townes and
habitations, lurking up and downe the woods in small numbers, and that a
peace (if honourably obtained) would conduce to the better being and
comoditie of the country," authorized Capt. Henry Fleet, the colony's
interpreter, and sixty men, to go out and try to make a peace with
Opechancanough. If they could not make such a peace, they were to erect
a fort on the Rappahannock River or between it and the York.
The "break" in the war came with the daring capture of Opechancanough
himself by Governor Berkeley. Berkeley, who frequently led the troops of
the colony in the field, was apprised of the Indian leader's
whereabouts, and with characteristic boldness led a troop of men in a
raid on his headquarters. The raid was successful: Opechancanough was
captured and brought back to Jamestown. The old chief, said to be over
100 years, acted the part of Emperor of the Indian confederation with
grave dignity. The historian Robert Beverley tells us that one day the
nearly blind warrior heard "a great noise of the treading of people
about him; upon which he caused his eye-lids to be lifted up; and
finding that a crowd of people were let in to see him, he call'd in high
indignation for the Governour; who being come, Opechancanough scornfully
told him, that had it been his fortune to take Sir William Berkeley
prisoner, he should not meanly have exposed him as a show to the
people." Berkeley accepted the rebuke, and ordered him treated with all
the dignity due his position as the leader of many Indian nations.
Unfortunately the life of Opechancanough was shortly after snuffed out
by one of his guards who shot him in the back, despite his defenseless
condition.
Peace was concluded with Necotowance, Opechancanough's successor, by the
first act of the October 1646 Assembly. The treaty is a document of
historic importance. Under its provisions Necotowance acknowledged that
he held his kingdom from the King of England and that his successors
might be appointed or confirmed by the King's Governors. Twenty beaver
skins were to be paid to the Governor yearly "at the going away of the
geese" in acknowledgment of this subjection. Necotowance and his people
were given freedom to inhabit and hunt on the north side of York River
without interference from the English, provided that if the Governor and
Council thought fit to permit any English to inhabit the lower reaches
of the peninsula, where land grants had been made before the massacre,
Necotowance first should be acquainted therewith. Necotowance in turn
surrendered all claim to the land between the falls of the James and the
York rivers downward to Chesapeake Bay. Indians were not allowed on this
land unless specially designated as messengers to the English. Similarly
it was a felony for an Englishmen to repair to the north side of the
York River except temporarily under special conditions authorized by the
Governor.
The significance of the treaty lies in the fact that the Indians were to
be treated as equals, with equal rights to live on the land with the
English and to enjoy the rights of human beings. They were no longer
considered as vermin to be exterminated whenever the opportunity
presented itself. For the first time in Virginia's history, the Indian
was considered to have an unquestioned legal right to the land. The
setting aside of a reservation for the Indians into which English
intrusion was forbidden marked the end of the "perpetual enmity" policy
of earlier days. When differences arose, they might still be settled by
peace or by war, but the right of either side to exist would not be
questioned.
Despite the improvement in the status of the Indian nations occasioned
by the treaty of 1646 it proved impossible to preserve their rights in
the face of the enormous increase in English population. The fate of the
eastern Indians proved identical to the fate of their western brothers
in the nineteenth century, when white population increased around the
areas set aside for Indian occupancy. But in Virginia the attempt was
made to establish a fair settlement, and Governor Berkeley honestly and
courageously labored to keep faith with the Indians, even though he lost
popularity and eventually his position as a result.
The Assembly of October 1646 also provided for the maintenance of the
forts built during the war. This was done by granting the land on which
they were built, plus adjoining acres, to individuals who would
guarantee to maintain the forts and to keep a certain number of men
constantly on the place. By this method the valuable forts of the
colony were preserved, yet the people were spared the heavy taxes that
would normally have been necessary to maintain them.
The Assembly made further provision that those who had settled along the
Potomac in Northumberland should not be allowed to avoid taxes as they
had done during the war. The English in this remote area had evidently
ignored the act of the February 1645 Assembly which attempted to tax
them, and followed instead their own interests, free from any effective
control by Virginia's government during the conflict with
Opechancanough.
Finally the October Assembly enacted the strictest and most democratic
voting law ever made in Virginia. Not only were all freemen (as well as
covenanted servants) allowed to vote, but they were fined 100 pounds of
tobacco for failing to do so. This act seems to have continued in effect
until 1655 when the Assembly prohibited freemen from voting unless they
were also householders.